Quotes from Tess Gerritsen

Because I never plan anything out ahead of time, I'm always in the process of learning about my characters. Without a biographical sketch to guide me, I discover things about my heroines as the stories unfold. Only in 'Body Double' did I discover that Maura's mother was a serial killer.

Even if I never sold another book, I'd keep writing, because the stories are here, in my head. Stories that just need to be told. I love watching a plot unfold, and feeling the surprise when the unexpected happens.

Because my dad's Chinese-American, and they're very concrete, he said, 'There's no money to be made in literature.' So he told me to go into the sciences. And I was a good girl. And I did what Daddy said. And that's how I ended up being a doctor. But you know, you just can't stamp out that desire to tell stories.

I know there's evil in the world, and there always has been. But you don't need to believe in Satan or demons to explain it. Human beings are perfectly capable of evil all by themselves.

Only the forgotten are truly dead.

The heart makes its choices without weighing the consequences. It doesn't look ahead to the lonely nights that follow.

The dead do not hurt you; only the living do.

Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.

Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go.

Everything's a gamble, love most of all.

You don't have to die to go to hell.

The most intimate feeling people can share is neither love nor hate, but pain.

We are all descended from monsters.

That's what falling in love really amounted to, your brain on drugs. Adrenaline and dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. Chemical insanity, celebrated by poets.

We dream our dreams, and sometimes they take us to places we never anticipate. But they are our dreams, and we go where they lead.

Even divorce, she thought, cannot erase all the bonds forged by years of marriage. Long after the papers are signed, decrees notarized, the ties still remain. And the most powerful tie of all is written in a child's flesh and blood.

God, it's like reality's completely shifted on me. I used to think I was standing on such solid ground. If I wanted something badly enough, I just worked like hell for it. Now I can't decide what to do, which move to make. All the things I counted on aren't there for me anymore.

The one man you most want to sleep with may be the worst choice of all.

There is honor between bitches

She now knew her death was inevitable, and with that acceptance came liberation. The courage of the condemned.

With every year that I grow older, I also draw closer to (my loved ones) to the day when we will once again be together. So I march through the deepening shadows, serene and unafraid, because I know that at the end of my journey they will be waiting for me.

The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.

he knew that the cruelest of blows too often came with a smile.

Sometimes, the person who could make you happiest is the one who waits patiently in the wings.